re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by aldawg2323 on 1/21/13 at 8:59 am to theOG

are you guys practicing law currently? Can you tell me about any recent scenarios where a PE would have contributed to a case? my training is in hydraulics and hydrology. I do a lot of floodplain mapping and have done a lot of research on groundwater movement.

re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by aldawg2323 on 1/21/13 at 9:13 am to theOG

Petroleum, yes? are you in oklahoma? is the drilling market hot in Ok yet? My company is trying to expand our floodplain permitting into Ok (Anardarko is big there I believe and we have done some work for Chesapeake), but we can barely handle our workload in the Eagleford.

Have you also considered geology? I may consider that ahead of engineering. you may have less schooling to catch up on. I made it through engineering, but I would probably go for a post-bachelors geology degree were I to do it again.

re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by theOG on 1/21/13 at 9:31 am to aldawg2323

i'm at a small firm that focuses on consumer work (bankruptcy, collection defense, etc.), but we will take pretty much anything that comes though the door as long as its not family law or criminal defense.

re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by lapistola on 1/21/13 at 10:26 am to aldawg2323

My undergraduate degree was in Mechanical Engineering and I graduated from law school in May '11.

A few things to consider are that its very difficult to get into Patent/IP in Louisiana. There's not a big market for it and the only firms that do it are the big firms (with the exception of a few boutique firms) where you have to be top of your class to get in. So you really have to be willing to move or dedicate yourself to being top 10-25% of the class and probably both. On top of that you have to take the Patent Bar which is very difficult. With that in mind I'd say its not a very good idea to run consulting work at the same time. If you did I would definitely schedule yourself at least a month before finals to dedicate to the exams. The first semester is the most important because the big firms start hiring clerks from those grades.

As far as other areas of law, your background will be helpful but not incredibly necessary unless you get in a very nuanced field. I work at a personal injury firm and the biggest benefit it provides is in the few products liability cases that we get. Other than that, everything is kind of a tangential advantage, like the critical thinking and analyzing skills that you've learned.

All in all I'd say that if its what you want to do, go for it and everything will fall into place. I had the same feelings about not wanting to be an engineer my entire life and I couldn't be happier with my career decision. I'm probably making less than I would be (for now) but its completely worth it.

re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by schlow mo on 1/21/13 at 10:29 am to TheOcean

Let me rephrase the way it was said.

I don't think places like LSU, Ole Miss, FSU and the other large state schools are TT or TTT. I am referring almost exclusively to small regional private schools that cost a mountain of cash and have very dim career prospects (sadly most law schools have dim prospects, but those especially).

re: thoughts on a PE attending Law School..Posted by theOG on 1/21/13 at 10:32 am to schlow mo

quote:I don't think places like LSU, Ole Miss, FSU and the other large state schools are TT or TTT. I am referring almost exclusively to small regional private schools that cost a mountain of cash and have very dim career prospects (sadly most law schools have dim prospects, but those especially).

again, i'm with you. i can't see it being a wise decision to go anywhere outside the top 100 schools.